The Absolute Sword vs The Wandering Samurai
by AWriterOfSomeThings
Summary: We've all heard of how 'The Absolute Sword' faced forces such as 'The Black Swordsman' and 'The Lightning Flash', but no one ever talks about the time 'The Absolute Sword' fought 'The Wandering Samurai'. Oneshot.


**A/N: Yo, what up everyone! So here we have a story featuring Klein and Yuuki as the main characters. Did you know that out of the 3.6k stories for SAO on this site, only ninety-one of them have Yuuki listed as a character? (Which sucks, because Yuuki is the best character in the series) And out of that ninety-one, only two of them focus on Klein and Yuuki? And that both of these stories probably ship the two? I'm not saying that's bad, I actually think that ship sounds kind of interesting. Anyways, and that both of them aren't being updated? I was actually looking forward to the two of them getting shipped together in those stories, but whatever. I'm not saying it's my main ship or anything, but I think it sounds kind of interesting. And I definitely don't have a problem with that ship. Anyways, just wanted to say I'm adding to that ninety-one and two within the ninety-one.**

 **Also, I should probably tell y'all that the title I gave Klein, 'Wandering Samurai', comes from Kirito telling him he looks like a wandering samurai.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online. Aren't disclaimers fun :)**

* * *

Klein brought his sword down, but his strike was, for the third time, blocked.

After knocking Klein's blade away, Yuuki launched a counter attack. She used her momentum to spin around, attempting a horizontal slash on him.

The strike was fast, but still slow enough for Klein to jump back and completely dodge the attack. However, having jumped back as he did, he was completely off balance and in no position to guard against any sort of strike.

Yuuki obviously saw this and knew it could be the opening to end the duel. She was a little disappointed though, this duel would only last thirty seconds because of that. She would still take the opening and defeat him though. It would be unfair to this warrior if she didn't do such a thing.

She launched herself forward, swinging her sword in a downward-diagonal slash. This wasn't a strike that would end the duel, obviously, but it was the beginning of what was to come. This was the strike that would bring about the beginning of this swordsman's loss. At least, that was what she thought...

Klein had seen the attack coming, and thus, knew he had to drop down to dodge the strike. As such, he no longer tried to stand, but instead allowed gravity to bring his body to the ground. He landed on his butt, muttering a quiet 'ow' as he did.

'Genius!' Yuuki thought. 'I haven't fought anyone else who'd have been able to react to this attack as fast as he did. Maybe he's actually stronger than I originally thought!'

Well, she thought that Klein's dodge had been planned, but truth be told, Klein simply lost balance and fell. It wasn't intentional in the least. As such, Klein had no clue what that starry look in his opponents eyes was all about, but he was still glad someone seemed to acknowledge his genius at this game, even if he himself had no idea what it was he had done.

Yuuki swung her sword a second time, aiming for the sitting Klein. Surely, he wouldn't be able to block the strike in his position, right? However, just before she started the movements of her next attack, Klein took action. Her blade came close to hitting him, but the timing with which he executed the roll allowed him to just barely avoid the attack.

'Amazing! Even before I made any motion to indicate my next attack he was able to predict it. He was even able to execute his roll at such a timing where I would have to carry out my own attack, while he would manage to just barely dodge my blade. His skill must be on a completely different level. It's possible he's the one I'm looking for.'

That was what Yuuki thought, but in reality, Klein's dodge was, again, unintentional. He simply thought he would look cool if he performed such a maneuver as a means to get back on his feet. So when he saw the growing gleam of admiration in the young girl's eyes, he only thought such a maneuver was much cooler than he thought it looked, and made a mental note to do it more often when he fell.

Instead of coming to a stand at the end of his roll, Klein stayed in a crouched position. Yuuki threw herself forward, thrusting her blade at the crouching samurai. However, Klein jumped to the side, avoiding the attack. In Yuuki's mind, it was an intentional move he made to counter her own, but as you may have guessed, while Klein's maneuver was intentional, it wasn't in response to her attack. It was the next move Klein had decided on without any consideration for what his opponent would do.

As Klein jumped to the side, he spun and swung his blade. He aimed a slash at the young girl's neck.

The young girl's eyes widened at the approaching blade. She wouldn't have the time to pull her sword back to block the attack. Her instincts took over. Her feet left the ground. She twisted her body, causing her to turn over so that her back was facing the ground. She shifted her weight, causing her upper body to be pulled lower due to gravity and her forward momentum. Her eyes were fixed on the blade as it glided over her body, just barely missing her.

As her body shot pass the blade, she placed one of her hands on the ground. Her lower body flew up and over her upper half. She pushed off with her hand connected to the ground, causing her body to flip right side up as she landed on her feet.

Yuuki raised her blade as she fixed her gaze on her opponent. He was watching her with a smile on his face and his katana resting on his shoulder. In response to this, she lowered her sword, placed a hand on her hip, and smiled back.

"That was pretty impressive!" he shouted to her.

"Thanks! That means a lot coming from you!" she replied. Having incorrectly judged his lucky mishaps as intentional acts, she held this opponent in high regard. So when she said it meant a lot coming from him, she really meant it.

He looked up at the sky with a sigh.

"Well, this was fun." He immediately brought his gaze back to the young girl. He lost his smile, his expression becoming serious. He pointed the tip of his blade at her as he continued. "But I think it's about time this duel ends!"

Yuuki dropped her smile as well and raised her sword. She narrowed her eyes, it looked like he was taking this very seriously now, so she figure she should too.

"Get ready for my ultimate technique!" he shouted.

'Ultimate technique!?'

Klein flew forward, raising his sword above his head as he arrived in front of her. Yuuki's eyes widened at the descending blade.

'But...' She lifted her sword to intercept the blade. 'I'm still faster!' But out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a smile make it's way onto her opponent's face.

She was surprised when the katana didn't make contact with her sword. Instead, it was now approaching from the side.

'It was a feint!?' She smiled as well. 'But I can still make it!'

She shifted her sword, holding it in the path of her opponents blade again. However...

'No way! Another feint!' Yuuki watched as her opponent pulled his blade back before it made contact with her own. After a spin, it was now heading toward her other side. 'Two feints in a row? That was a risk... But it was genius!'

Yet, no matter how genius it was, Yuuki was still faster, and thus, was able to move her sword in the path of his weapon again. However, their weapons still did not make contact. Instead, Klein's katana was now coming down in a diagonal slash.

'Three feints?' Yuuki was much confused by that tactic. 'Two was still genius, but three... well, that's when it starts to enter the realm of stupidity...' She shook her head at that thought. 'No, he's a genius, right? Maybe I'm missing something? He's not actually an idiot, is he? He couldn't be... right?'

She brought her sword up in another attempt to block the attack, however...

'A fourth feint? Really?'

His weapon was now coming at her from the opposite side, however, she just lowered her sword. She wasn't making any attempt to block his attack. She just watched the samurai suspiciously.

She fully expected the attack to connect with her... well, she half-expected the attack to connect with her, however, the samurai's blade was now coming from at her from a new direction. She furrowed her brows, thoroughly confused by his actions.

'I was completely open, why didn't he strike me!?' She watched, as his blade completely avoided her again, and instead, started at her from a different angle.

She let out a frustrated sigh as she simply lifted her blade and effortlessly pushed it through her opponents abdomen. As soon as she stabbed him, he immediately stopped all movements, and just stood in place completely frozen.

With his sword still being held above his head, Klein shifted his gaze down. He cast a quick glance at his decreasing health bar, before shifting his focus to the sword in his gut. He lifted his head and stared into the young girl's bored eyes, before shifting it back to the blade.

"Argh!" he immediately groaned in 'pain'.

He took several steps back, wrapping an arm around his 'wound' as soon as the blade was removed.

"You... you were able to defeat my ultimate technique, Thousand Feints!" he shouted a little too dramatically, pointing a finger at her as he did.

Yuuki raised a brow at his words.

'Thousand Feints? His technique was throwing a thousand feints?' Her eyes widened as realization hit her. 'No... no way! He's not a genius!?' Yuuki pushed her palm to her face at her realization.

"Um... is everything alright?" Klein sheepishly asked.

She lifted her arm, pointing out into the distance. "Please, just... just go."

"Huh? What? Why!?"

"Please tell me you're joking, and you're actually able to tell why I'm asking you to leave."

"Well, I mean, if you don't want to fight me anymore..." Klein walked up to her. "But let's at least end it with a handshake." he said as he held out his hand for her to take.

She stared at his hands for a few seconds. She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh as she grabbed it. "Whatever..."

After they shook hands, Klein turned around. But...

"Surprise attack!" he shouted out right before he spun around and swung his weapon at her.

He may have expected to hit her with that attack, however, she managed to bring her sword up and block the attack.

"Really?" she asked boredly.

Klein let out an awkward chuckle. He no longer saw that gleam of admiration in her eyes. No, he saw something else in her eyes.

Klein wasn't given the option of simply leaving again. The duel was properly ended within the next thirty seconds.

* * *

"And that kids, is how I met your mother." Klein used his thumb to point at the girl sitting on the armrest of the chair beside his after he finished telling his story.

"Um... Klein... Yuuki isn't our mother... and you're not our father... and none of us are related..." Jun pointed out in response to Klein's strange sentence at the end of his story.

The sleeping knights had visited Kirito and Asuna at their house. A few minutes into the visit, and Klein showed up. After a short discussion, they somehow ended up on the topic of why Klein never dueled Yuuki, to which he revealed that he had faced her. He then proceeded to regale them with the tale of their battle. And that, was how they ended up here.

Klein turned his head to face Yuuki. She was looking at him with a rather disturbed expression. He scratched his head, what he said wasn't _that_ strange, was it?

"Klein, we've _never_ been together, and we've _never_ had children with each other... or at all for that matter." Yuuki made sure to emphasize the word 'never'.

"Come on, you're making it sound like it would be completely impossible." he teased.

"I'm fifteen!" she shot back. "Besides," She folded her arms and turned her head away from him "Why would I want to be with someone who treated our battle like it was a complete joke."

"Oh, come on, you're not still mad about that, are you?" She didn't answer. "I knew there was no way I was going to win that match." She just gave a 'Hmph!' as a response. "Okay look, I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry, so will you forgive me?"

She sighed.

"Fine, I'll forgive you."

"Thank you." Klein replied, turning away from the young girl.

"If," She looked at him with a bright smile. "You fight me for real. That's the only way I'll forgive you."

He immediately turned back to her, a baffled expression on his face.

"What!? Seriously!" She couldn't help giggling at his reaction. "Hey, this is no joke! We both know you'll win!"

"Do you want me to forgive you or not?"

He let out a long sigh, dropping his head in defeat.

"Fine," he muttered.

"Then let's go!" Yuuki excitedly jumped up and started on her way to the door.

Everyone else stood in silence, slightly confused by what happened.

* * *

The two found a nice spot for dueling a small distance from the house. The both of them now stood across from each other, while the others stood an appropriate distance from them to spectate the fight.

Everyone already made up their minds about who they thought would win, it was pretty obvious. Not Yuuki though, she didn't have any thoughts about who would win. It wasn't because she was so humble and modest that she refused to acknowledge her monstrous strength. No, not anything like that. She just simply lived in the moment. She just wanted to fight, that's all. The thought of predicting the outcome of any of her fights never crossed her mind.

But, if you got her to settle down, and asked her who she thought would win, one of two things would happen. If she actually thought about it, she'd probably acknowledge that she'd win. The second and most probable thing to happen, however, would be, after pondering your question for a bit, she'd respond with something along the lines of, 'If I make up my mind about who's going to win, then why do I even need to fight them?', or something like that.

She didn't care much to try and predict the fight. She just wanted to live in the moment and _have_ the fight. That was why she was currently bouncing with excitement as the timer to signal the start of the duel was counting down. She held no thoughts about what the future contained, she just focused on the here and now. On the opponent who stood before her.

As the timer neared zero, the two fighters took their proper battle stance. After Klein dropped his carefree smile, Yuuki did the same, the both of them replacing it with a pretty serious expression. With three seconds left, they both took in a deep breath-two seconds-then slowly exhaled-one-Their eyes met...

Zero

Klein dashed forward as soon as the timer hit zero, whereas Yuuki decided to stay where she was. He brought his katana to his left hip, coating his blade in a green light. Everyone watched on completely shocked by his actions. He had activated a sword skill.

However, it wasn't the use of a sword skill that shocked them, rather, it was the timing with which he used it. Normally, one would not use a sword skill at the beginning of a fight, that was considered a stupid move. While it was considered acceptable in the old Aincrad... acceptable in the world of Sword Art Online, not just acceptable, but a pretty competent move, in the world of Alfheim Online, in this world of fairies, it was considered quite stupid. Especially against an opponent like Yuuki.

Klein's skill activated, throwing his blade up at her from the bottom left.

Yuuki's eyes widened as she followed the trajectory of the blade. It moved so fast any ordinary human would have been unable to see the blade. However, she wasn't any ordinary human. She was able to track his sword, and thus, she was able to throw her blade up to block the attack.

While Klein was stunned from the post-motion delay, Yuuki followed up with a counter attack.

It was only thirty seconds later that the duel ended with Klein's death. All because of his mistake at the beginning of the duel.

"Wow, you really got me!" Klein shouted out after being revived by Asuna. Being left in a sitting position after his revival, Klein looked up at her with a smile. "Looks like you can forgive me now, right?"

"Really?" Yuuki asked slightly irritated, bringing everyone's confused eyes to her. "Did you really think I would buy that?"

"I don't know what you mean..." Klein replied while looking away from her.

"Do you honestly believe I can't tell you weren't fighting seriously again!?"

"Klein," Asuna folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Is this true?"

"That's preposterous!" he exclaimed, unable to meet Asuna's eyes.

"Then are you calling me a liar?" Yuuki challenged, mirroring Asuna's earlier actions of folding her arms and narrowing her eyes.

"What! Urgh... No! I mean..." Klein turned to Kirito. "Hey, Kirito, help me out here!"

Kirito looked at the two females. When they fixed their angry glares on him, he turned back to Klein and replied...

"Sorry Klein, but you're on your own right now."

"What! Are you serious!" Klein argued.

Kirito pointed at them, "Wife and wife's best friend," He pointed at Klein, "Person wife and wife's best friend are mad at. I think the choice is obvious here." The two girls turned their angry stares back at Klein.

"Well, I guess I can't really blame you man... But will you guys at least let me explain!?" Klein pleaded.

The two girls looked at each other, almost as if they were having a silent conversation. After a couple seconds, the two turned back to Klein and nodded.

"So, I did actually throw that match." Klein admitted, causing the two girls to become visibly angrier. "But it's not because I was taking the match as a joke again!" Klein quickly added, waving both his hands to try and dispel some of their anger, but to no avail.

"Explain." Asuna raised a brow.

"Well, I just figured that since we all knew you were going to win the fight anyways, it would be much faster and less tedious for me if I just lost the fight. That way you'd forgive me and everyone would be happy."

Yuuki pointed to the frown on her face, "Do I look happy?"

"That's because the plan didn't go off perfectly," he muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "But that's all in the past now!" Klein added with a smile. "So, do ya forgive me now?"

"Are you actually being serious about that question?"

"Yes?" Klein asked hesitantly, unsure it was the right answer even though it was the true answer.

Yuuki simply turned her head away from Klein with a 'Hmph!'.

"Oh, come on!" Klein shouted in slight irritation.

"Klein, just fight her for real. We already know that's the only way she'll forgive you." Kirito suggested.

"But it'll just be a huge waste of time!" Klein argued.

"If anything, I think you just showed that not taking it seriously was a big waste of time." Kirito shot back.

Klein rubbed his face with both his hands, before looking back up and shouting, "Fine! Whatever! Let's just do this for real then!"

"Finally!" Yukki shouted with an excited bounce.

The two took their earlier positions across from each other, while everyone stood off to the side to watch the fight. Yuuki wore an excited smile, however, Klein's face was stone cold.

Klein closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, held it for a second, then let it out. He opened his eyes and focused on Yuuki.

Yuuki lost her smile. Her eyes widened at the feeling she was receiving. Under Klein's gaze, she felt as if a cold blade was being pressed against her neck. She felt that if she moved even an inch the blade would cut into her flesh and spill her blood. She had never felt pressure like the kind emanating off of Klein. It was like he was some monster that would devour her if she made any move. All of it... it made her feel something... it made her feel a tinge of fear.

Kirito's eyes widened. He was all too familiar with this feeling.

"H-hey, you idiot!" Kirito shouted to Klein. "This isn't what we meant when we said to take the fight seriously!"

Klein's eyes went wide, "Eh! Really!?" He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Um... this is embarrassing..."

The pressure coming from Klein disappeared, allowing Yuuki to move again. The tinge of fear she felt was now gone as well. She watched Klein and Kirito's interaction completely confused by what just happened. Their short conversation didn't exactly help to clear it up either.

"Sorry, Yuuki! Let's try this again!"

"Uh... sure," she replied with a nod, still unsure of what had happened. What she had just experienced was completely foreign to her, she had no idea what it was. The same went for the rest of the spectators- except maybe Asuna -they weren't sure what just happened.

However, Kirito knew what that feeling was. He had felt it enough times to know. And that familiar experience caused a grim thought to float through his mind.

'Klein... just how many people did you kill in that world?' It was a topic him and Klein never discussed. They both knew the other had killed at least once in that world, but it wasn't something either of them wanted to talk about. But the killing intent Klein just showed off... the amount of people Klein killed definitely wasn't a small number. Klein had often talked about how he kept all the members of his guild alive, how none of his friends had died, but he never told anyone what kind of price he had to pay for such a thing.

Yet, the thing that really struck Kirito, was how easily Klein was able to turn such intent on someone he considered a friend. Not even Kirito could easily turn such intent to kill upon one of his friends.

'Klein, just what did you go through in that world?'

Kirito carried baggage from the lives he had taken. He lived with nightmares. He lived with several sleepless nights. If that was the case for him, then how much worse would it be for Klein? After what just happened, he knew without a doubt that Klein killed more people than he had. So what kind of baggage did Klein carry? How many nights did Klein spend without sleep? How many nightmares did he have every night? How many people haunted him...?

Out of the group of friends who returned to the real world, Klein always seemed like the one least traumatized by it all. Now, Kirito wasn't sure if that was the case. Maybe he just pretended. Much like how he pretended when he returned.

'We all told Klein to take this fight seriously... but we didn't even know what that meant for him... I don't know if any of us will ever know what that means for him...'

One thing Kirito was certain of now though, Klein definitely suffered in that world just as much as the rest of them, maybe even more so. Something that was so easy to forget with the way Klein acted. Like there was nothing wrong with him. Like nothing could ever be wrong with him.

Kirito came out of his thoughts when he noticed the timer was on three seconds.

The two fighters repeated their actions from last time the timer reached three seconds. Their eyes meeting right before the timer hit zero.

Klein started the duel the same way he started the last one. He threw himself forward, bringing his katana to his hip again, dying his blade a different color.

Everyone frowned, expecting this fight to play out the same as the last one. After all, Klein was using the exact same tactic, and the exact same sword skill.

However, while everyone else frowned at Klein's actions, Kirito smiled. He could see the change in Klein's eyes, he knew Klein wasn't treating this fight the same way he had the first time. He didn't know what Klein was going to do. He didn't know what he had up his sleeve. But he did know this, this fight would not end like the earlier one.

Kirito still believed Yuuki would win this fight, but he was also certain that after this fight, Klein would definitely earn Yuuki's respect.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, the end. I hope you all liked this! Probably not the best I've ever written, but I thought I still did alright.**

 **I do acknowledge that I changed the katana sword skill to better fit the story, but in my defense, there's hardly any information on katana sword skills, sooo... yeah. I didn't really have an option.**

 **Some of you might be wondering why Asuna became angry with Klein upon figuring out he didn't take the duel seriously. Well, the truth is... I don't know. I just needed to make the other characters do something, so yeah.**

 **As for the characters' personalities, I tried my best. Yuuki's was pretty difficult, and I know I didn't nail it, but I thought it was close. Same with the others, I thought I got them pretty close.**

 **Anyways, see y'all later!**


End file.
